So much for the Australasian, of which it must not be forgotten that the Sportsman and Yeoman are only component parts. As its name implies, it has a wide circulation beyond Victoria. In the Riverine district and a considerable part of New South Wales, it is the principal paper taken; and even in New Zealand and Western Australia all hotels and many private persons subscribe to it. To the wide area over which, and the good class of people amongst whom it circulates, is largely due the leading position which Victoria occupies in the minds of all the other colonies, and the views they take of her politics. The Australasian is of course Conservative, but not quite so rabidly so as the Argus. It surveys politics from the Conservative gallery. The Argus takes part in the scrimmage and leads the Conservative forces. In commenting on intercolonial politics, by which I mean those of the other colonies, it always takes a mildly Conservative view, advocating federation, caution in borrowing, and assistance to the exploration and settlement of the interior. Not its least use is, that it gives the people of one colony the opportunity of knowing what is going on in the other colonies. Many of the articles are signed with a nom de plume, under the cover of which atheistical and even revolutionary views are allowed to express themselves. In religious matters the Argus and Australasian maintain an eclectic attitude. Outwardly they are Christian in the widest sense of the term, but it is not difficult to see that most of their writers are agnostics. On social subjects, directly they get clear of contemporary local politics, their views are progressive and enlightened, often indeed original. It is curious to note that all the leading organs of public opinion in Australia are strongly Conservative and Imperialistic in their views of the foreign policy of England. There is only one exception, to my knowledge, the Melbourne Age, which advocates a non-interference policy, and would not be sorry to see 'the painter cut.' On home affairs the colonial press is naturally in sympathy with the Liberals, but the Argus draws the line at the Clôture and the Liberal policy in Ireland, which it opposes.
Of the imitators of the Australasian, the Queenslander, published by the proprietors of the Brisbane Courier; the Leader, published by the Age proprietors; and the Town and Country, by the proprietors of the Sydney Evening News, are the best, in the order named. The Sydney Mail, published by the Sydney Morning Herald, is also a good compendium of information on current topics. The Adelaide Observer is little better than an abstract of the S. A. Register, and the S. A. Chronicle is literally a reproduction of the S. A. Advertiser. But all these papers are much more provincial in tone than the Australasian, and have hardly any circulation outside the colony in which they are published. About two years ago a new independent paper was started in Melbourne, with the programme indicated by its name--the Federal Australian. It is very American in tone, and a large portion of its space is devoted to rather second-rate funniness. But the leading articles are good, and it has struck out a most useful line for itself in a supplement called the Scientific Australian, modelled on the Scientific American. This portion of the paper is of great value, and if only on that account it deserves to live.
Monthly illustrated papers are published in connection with the Argus, the Age, and the Sydney Herald, and also independently by printing firms in Sydney and Adelaide. The two Melbourne ones are by far the best, but they are very dear at a shilling. The same may be said of the comic papers at sixpence. The political cartoons in the Melbourne Punch are often excellently imagined, but the execution is not remarkable, and the reading matter is wretched. The conceptions of the cartoons are also frequently coarse. The Society paper has found its way here, via San Francisco. The most vulgar is the Sydney Bulletin, which is, as a rule, coarse to a degree; but it must be owned that it is also very clever and exceedingly readable--qualities which its imitators altogether lack. One knows quite enough about other people's business here without having papers specially to spread it, and in such small communities the Bulletin tribe are a public nuisance. But yet they sell freely at sixpence a copy!
The provincial press is, as a rule, feeble. Ballarat, Sandhurst, and Geelong are the only three towns large enough to support papers of the slightest value outside the place where they are published. But these small fry are very useful in their humble sphere, and are almost without exception respectably conducted. How they 'pay' is 'one of those things which no fellah can understand.'
There are a number of newspapers devoted to the promotion of the interests of the various religious bodies, the licensed victuallers, and other trades. The best of these is the Australian Insurance and Banking Record, which is most ably conducted. The licensed victuallers support a weekly Gazette in each of the principal towns. The Church of England has two organs, one in Sydney, and the other in Melbourne. The Temperance party, like their opponents, have three papers devoted to the maintenance of their views, besides which, they get a good deal of side support from the dozen or so of religious sheets. The licensed victuallers seem to combine sporting and dramatic items with the advocacy of what they call the TRADE, and abuse of the Good Templars. The latter, however, are still more vehement in abuse, and even less sensible in argument.
Besides the newspaper press, Australia possesses four magazines, two published in Sydney and two in Melbourne. Of the former, one known first as the Australian, and then as the Imperial Review, is not worth mentioning, if, indeed, it is not ere now defunct. The other, called the Sydney University Review, a quarterly, has only just come into existence with an exceptionally brilliant number, three articles in which are fully worthy of a place in any of the leading London monthlies. That it will continue as it has begun I should fancy to be more than doubtful. The oldest established magazine is the Melbourne Review, started about five years ago. For the last three years it has been languishing. The most flourishing magazine is the Victorian Review, which is only three years old. The contents are very variable in quality. Occasionally there is a really first-class article, and generally there are one or two very readable. The quality has much fallen off during the last eighteen months, but it affords a convenient outlet for the young colonists to air political and social crotchets, and to descant on philosophical theories. Now and then the editor used to hook a big fish, such as the Duke of Manchester, Professor Amos, and Senor Castelar, who have all contributed to its columns. The philosophical articles are naturally very feeble, but not unfrequently university professors and others among the ablest residents in Australia make the Review a vehicle for setting forth schemes and ideas, which would not find admission into the newspapers.
LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND ART.
Strictly speaking, there is not, and cannot yet be, any such thing as an Australian literature. Such writers as live in Australia are nearly all English-born or bred, and draw their inspiration from English sources. A new country offers few subjects for poetry and romance, and prophecy is by no means so inspiring as the relation of the great deeds of the past. But yet there has been at least one amongst us who may claim to have had the real poetic afflatus, and whose subjects were invariably taken from the events of the life around him. This was Thomas Gordon, the author of 'How we Beat the Favourite,' and several other short pieces of verse of rare merit, and redolent of the Australian air. George Brunton Stephens is another versifier, who at times showed signs of genius; and it is not long since a Mr. Horace Kendall died, who ran off sheets of graceful verses with considerable talent and no little poetic fancy.
In philosophy, history, and science, many of the Professors at Australian Universities have written treatises worth reading; but Australia has had so little influence either upon their subjects or their mode of treating them, that their merit cannot be claimed for this country. Perhaps the best-known writers of this class, resident in the colonies, are Professor Hearn, author of 'The Aryan Household.' and Mr. Charles A. Pearson, the historian of the Middle Ages.
Australia may boast of having furnished no uninteresting theme to Henry Kingsley, and several minor English novelists. She has sent to England no less rising a light than Mr. B. L. Farjeon; but the few novels that are written and published here have never attracted notice across the ocean, and rarely even in Australia itself, if we except Mr. Marcus Clarke's 'His Natural Life.' After Mr. Clarke come Mr. Garnet Walsh, Mr. Grosvenor Bunster, and one or two prophets in their own neighbourhood, pleasant writers of Christmas stories, clever dramatizers of novels and pantomime-writers, but none of them with the least claim to a wider audience.